Dive Team Recovers Body Of Teen Who Disappeared During River 'Float Down'

PORT HURON (WWJ/AP) - The body of a young man who presumably drowned in the St. Clair River has been recovered.

The St. Clair County sheriff's department says its dive team found the body 19-year-old Brady Morton, who disappeared during the annual Float Down event on the U.S.-Canada border waterway.

St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon said in a statement that divers located Morton's body about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday using an underwater camera. He says they spotted it about 45 yards off shore from Port Huron in about 26 feet of water. The body was located at the bottom of the river, off Gratiot Avenue just south of Ravenswood Road.

According to officials, Morton was floating with a group of about 40 people when he left his raft to go swimming in the vicinity of Malcolm Marine. His friends say he never came back and they couldn't say exactly when they last saw him.

People in tubes and rafts entered the river Sunday at Lighthouse Beach in Port Huron, 55 miles northeast of Detroit. They exited at Chrysler Beach in Marysville.

The Coast Guard suspended a search and rescue mission Monday night.

"Suspending a search and rescue case is an extremely difficult decision to make," said Chief Petty Officer Gabriel Settel, the assistant command center supervisor at Coast Guard Sector Detroit. "The Coast Guard and partner agencies have exhausted all available resources with the information that was available. Our thoughts and prayers are with Brady's family and friends."

Donnellson said investigators will conduct an autopsy Friday.

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